Rainy day for a train ride
I was listening to WCAP this morning, so I heard about the delays on the commuter rail line from Lowell to Boston. I checked online, phoned for an update, and sure enough: Due to flooding, the trains were stopping in Wilmington to unload passengers and shuttling them by bus to Anderson, where they would get back on a train for the rest of the ride to Boston. This supposedly would make the trip only 30 minutes longer. Even with that hassle and having to allow extra time, the thought of fighting traffic and paying to park in Boston rather than sipping coffee and reading the paper made the train/bus/train option still my first choice. Fortunately, by the time I left on the 12:15, they had resolved the flooded-track issue somehow, and we took the train straight into North Station, albeit slower than usual. As we rode, we passed wetlands of trees standing in small ponds, backyards that had become dark lakes, above-ground pools encased in water, and homes floating in puddles halfway up garage doors. Alongside the tracks, a rushing gully of dark water kept pace with a current of tiny waves. Later, when I left North Station for the 15-minute walk to Beacon Street, the wind savagely ripped my umbrella into a deranged tangle of metal and torn cloth, rendering it useless, while rain sliced through my coat and stung my face. I was soaking wet and cold when I got to my meeting, and as much as I dreaded the walk back to North Station and the slow ride home, I knew I would dry easily. Not so, for those folks whose homes and businesses had been deluged.